


Can't Help Falling In Love (Elvis Got It Right)

by Rinzler



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5026009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinzler/pseuds/Rinzler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I didn't know you could sing, Scarlet."<br/>“Cold? What are you doing here?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Help Falling In Love (Elvis Got It Right)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiselleVelvet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiselleVelvet/gifts).



> lisellevelvet on tumblr prompted "Coldflash, either 4. “I’m flirting with you.” OR 17. “I didn’t know you could sing.”" I know that #4 has already been done at least two times, so I decided to try my hand at #17. Supposed to be a drabble, but then I needed to find a song, Elvis came to mind, and, well.... Things got a bit out of hand. Hope you enjoy!

Ever since Team Flash became active once again, Barry is the one to close down the Cortex at the end of the day.

It used to be that he would be the first one gone, followed by Caitlin and Cisco, leaving Dr. Wells to do whatever it was he did before they all came back. But Wells- Eobard Thawne, actually, and Barry really needs to remember that- is gone now.

Caitlin still leaves fairly early. Cisco used to hang around after she left for a while, but then he started leaving not long after her. Both Joe and Iris leave at around the same time Caitlin does, riding in the police car back home. Jay goes home to wherever he’s staying; none of them have really thought to ask.

Now it’s Barry who closes the place up.

He doesn’t mind. Powering everything down and putting everything away doesn’t take long with his superspeed, and he likes not having to deal with anyone for those hours he stays. He spent the first six months after the singularity isolating himself in STAR Labs, getting used to being alone. One of the spare medical rooms a floor down from the Cortex still holds a few sets of clothes, sheets, a pillow and some other things. Barry hasn’t had the heart to remove them yet, to fully make the transition from STAR Labs being his space to STAR Labs being their- Team Flash’s- space.

There’s a lingering desire to keep pushing everyone away in order to protect them, but he’s realizing now it’s not as good of an idea as letting them stay. Joe, Iris, Cisco, Caitlin, even Dr. Stein, they all know what they’re getting into now. They’ve lost Ronnie and they’ve lost Eddie, they know the dangers. They can provide help, medical and engineering, that he can’t. Even Jay has mentoring advice.

There are still some days, though, when Barry wants to physically force everyone out, to remind them of the fact that every time they come near him they’re risking their deaths. Those days, he waits longer to leave, spending a few hours just sitting in the darkness of the lab or propped against the door to the accelerator, reminding himself it’s not his choice to make. All he can do is try to protect them now that they’ve made that choice.

Tonight he’s sitting in the chair in front of Caitlin’s medical desk, toying with some plastic atom-builders he’d brought in a while ago. Surgeries and stitches could take a while, so they made up a game where Caitlin would name an element or compound and Barry had to build it with whatever hand, or hands, he could use and without his superspeed. Not only was it fun, but it served in part as a mental test for a concussion or worse.

The Cortex is silent, only a low-level buzzing coming from the few fluorescent lights Barry had turned on and the dim glow of the computer screens. Anywhere else it would be creepy, but here it’s comforting. The dim glow makes the whole room look washed out, as though it’s in black-and-white- an old-school glamour filter on the peak of modern science.

Despite the white noise, it’s almost too silent. Barry spins in his chair a little, absentmindedly humming a tune in an attempt to fill the air. He breaks the sulfuric acid structure in his hands back into the original elements and starts tapping them onto the table to the beat.

“Wise men say… Only fools rush in…”

Before long he’s singing softly, words catching and echoing on all the metallic surfaces in the room. He’s not sure why it’s this song specifically that comes to mind. Maybe it’s something about the deserted space and the lonely day he’s had. Maybe it’s been on his mind all day. Maybe he just wants to sing something.

“But I can’t help… Falling in love with you.”

Barry stands up from the chair and finds himself swaying a little. Elvis always has and always will be one of his favorite singers, and he’s always wanted to dance along with someone to one of his songs. It’s not likely to happen, between his passable dancing and perpetually unlucky love life, but Barry can hope.

“Shall I stay… Would it be a sin… If I can’t help… Falling in love with you.”

He moves away from the table, trailing his hands along the surface and doing a slow twirl out to the center of the room, closing his eyes.

“ Like a river flows... Surely to the sea… Darling so it goes… Some things are meant to be. Take my hand… Take my whole life too… For I can’t help…. Falling in love with you.”

More than a hint of longing creeps into his voice when he sings ‘darling’ and for a moment he feels tears begin to form. It’s ridiculous and sad, but he’s never been called that by anyone, and he’s always wanted to be. Pet names might be overtly cheesy and domestic, but it comes down to the pain of wanting something he’s never had. Barry’s alone in the Cortex, and it’s not like anyone can judge him for finally giving into the loneliness and hurt that’s been plaguing him for weeks now.

Barry sings the last verse once again, voice still soft but echoing, swaying to the melody.

“For I can’t help… Falling in love with you. For I can’t help… Falling in love with you.”

The last echo fades. The room is silent again.

“I didn’t know you could sing, Scarlet.”

The other voice cuts through the peaceful silence like a gunshot. It’s soft, not yelling and barely above a whisper, but Barry is by now far too familiar with it. He spins around and his eyes land on the figure leaning against the doorway.

“Cold? What are you doing here?” Barry says, tensing up and readying himself for an attack. “If this is supposed to be a break-in-”

“Chill, Scarlet,” Leonard Snart says. He takes a step away from the doorway and into the room. “If this was a break-in, I would have gone while you were on the first verse.”

“You heard the whole thing?” Barry says. He can feel himself start to blush. Sure, Snart has seen him do way more embarrassing things- like skid across three lanes of traffic and crash into the wall of a building because of a layer of ice on the ground- but that’s different. He’s in the suit then. Here, now, in the Cortex, all he has on is a white t-shirt and an old ripped-up pair of blue jeans. It feels more personal somehow.

Snart takes a few more steps into the section of the Cortex, and Barry notices for the first time how he’s dressed. Snart has on a dark-bluish henley with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and black jeans. It’s hard to tell the exact colors in the lighting. The cold gun is nowhere in sight.

Dressed like this, he doesn’t look like his Captain Cold persona. Instead, he looks softer, more real, somehow, in the dim glow of the room. Snart tilts his head to stare at him and Barry notices that his eyes are dark. He shivers.

“Didn’t know you were a fan of Elvis.” Snart says.

“Isn’t everyone?” Barry fires back. Snart laughs at the comeback, and Barry notices how close together they’ve drifted, standing only a few feet apart.

“I like your singing.”

The comment catches Barry off guard and he blinks in shock, jaw dropping open a little. It’s been awhile since anyone complimented his singing. Not that he sings a lot where other people can hear. That time at the karaoke bar with Caitlin was a fluke- he still insists he only went up there to stop the cheering crowd.

“Uh…. thank you.” Barry says, barely managing to keep it from becoming a question.

Snart smirks a little and Barry relaxes. This is familiar ground, this he can deal with.

“Why are you here alone?” Snart asks.

Maybe it’s the fact that it’s so late and Barry’s tired, or the fact that they’re the only ones there, or some combination of those and a hundred other factors, but Barry finds himself responding to the question.

“I had a bad day and I wanted some time to myself. To think things through,” he says. Snart nods, accepting the explanation, but for some reason Barry feels compelled to keep talking. That doesn't feel like a full answer. He takes a deep breath, gaze falling to the floor. “And… I guess… It’d just been a while since I sang anything and that song was on my mind. And I kept thinking about how I really wanted to dance with someone.”

His reply is halting, and Barry glances up when he’s finished talking to see Snart considering him with a strange expression on his face. “Snart?” He says. “What-”

“Call me Len,” the other says. Barry blinks and decides that okay, he can do that.

“Len? What are you thinking about?” He says.

Snart- Len- takes a slow step closer to Barry until they’re only a foot apart, still staring at him before a slow smirk curves up the corner of his mouth.

“I’m thinking we should dance,” Len says.

“Dance?” Barry says.

Len doesn’t bother responding, only takes another small step forward, one of his hands coming up to grip Bary’s waist gently. Barry lets out an involuntary gasp. Len’s hand is so warm that it feels like a brand, burning through the thin layer of his t-shirt. Len reaches down with his other hand to tangle their fingers together and slowly raises their joined hands to shoulder level.

Hesitantly, Barry finds himself lifting his other hand and placing it on Len’s shoulder. He’s only danced with a partner a few times before, but somehow this feels natural.

“Dance, Barry Allen,” Len says softly, “with me.”

Barry knows this is a bad idea, knows that something has just shifted between them, some part of their dynamic as the Flash and Captain Cold that they can’t ever change back. Yet, the part of his conscience (that sounds oddly like Oliver) that’s screaming bloody murder about heroes and villains and the lines between the two is being shoved further and further back into his mind.

All Barry can think about is how warm Len’s hands are, how they feel against Barry’s skin, how Len smells like wintergreen and pinewood.

He gives a shaky nod.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not continue this, if I ever have time to properly research a waltz and how these two would dance. Let me know what you think! As always, my tumblr is whyinhades.


End file.
